EDRD 7717 Module 3: Reading Reaction

      There were a lot of topics discussed in this weeks chapters that had to do with Emergent Literacy. Emergent Literacy is defined as "the developement of the association of print wih meaning that begins early in a child's life and continuous" (Opitz, 2011, p. 105). The term "reading readiness" used to be used to determine if a child was "ready" to start reading, but this term has been replaced by emergent literacy. While the students are in Kindergarden, teachers periodically assess students to determine whether their students are in fact emergent readers. These tests are used to predict the students' future sucess in reading, as well as pin pointing those who may be "at risk". However, the main issue people have with these tests is that they put too much emphasis on time and how quick the studentss can read. I agree with this statement, because if a child is able to comprehend the story within a comfortable amount of time then why should it matter how long it took them. Over time the child will become a faster and faster reader as they continue to read. Time assessments have always been my down fall, because I get stressed before the test even starts thinking about how much time I have per questions. When I was a young student about to take an assessment, if I could have gotten away with being "sick" every time I would because they physically made me sick to my stomach at times. However, it was not because I did not know the information, but because I psyched myself out.
      When Optiz discussed the topic of concept and concept development, it made me think of various topics I learned in my undergrad. We were taught to teach to our students' interests because then the students can take the new content and connect it to their background knowledge. When students find a way to connect or "organize" the information themselves, they are more likely to fully absorb the content because they have remembered it in a way that is familiar to them. However, there is always going to be specific content that one may think is basic that the student will have no prior knowledge on, so it is our job to give the students background on all the stories we read alound. Reading to children will greatly affecting their literacy, but there must be certain things done before, during and after in order to be effective. A few suggestions are "have the children sit comfortably", "make sure there are no distractions", "stop at key points to predict what will happen", "ask questions" and "retell the story in sequence" (Optiz, 2011, p. 121). Reading out loud to students will also help with the students "story sense", which is their ability to successfully structure a story.
     

EDRD 7717 Module 2: Reading Inventory Video Response

      This video was helpful, however, I think that it could have gone in to more detail then just the word list part because there is a lot of different parts to the QRI-5. Once I looked through the book and saw what all it offered I was so excited because this is exactly what my teacher last year had us use when we were completing a case study on a few of our students. This video was helpful in allowing us to see how we should talk to the student and how they may do on the word list section. Making the student comfortable is essential when giving them something like this especially because this is not something that is going to go in the grade book- it is simply for our information and use in helping the student. Letting them know that they just need to do their best and if there is one they do not know they are allowed to skip it is a great way to make them feel comfortable because then they will not get nervous if they get to a word they do not know. I have already completed my QRI-5 reading assessment, but this video was reassuring in the sense that I feel like I said about the same things as this teacher did at the beginning of the video. Next time though, I will be sure to ask the student about their reading past and habits because I thought that she had a good transition from conversation to assessment.

EDRD 7717 Module 2: Article Response

Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instruction

      This article was very interesting because it challenged my way of thinking of assessment. Last year in my undergraduate, we talked a lot about assessment and its importance. Therefore, I understand that assessments are tools used within the classroom to determine a child's understanding of the content in order to guide the preceding instruction. Risko and Walker-Dalhouse named three different ways that teachers can "maximize their potential": "assess more than single skills", "use formative assessments", and "design multimodal assessments"  (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2010, pg. 420). 

      I completely agree with their statement that a lot of tests that I have seen administered over the past few years "focus more on literal comprehension than higher levels of comprehension" (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2010, pg. 420). It is so important that we give our children more credit and allow them to think on a deeper level because that is when they will really begin to fully understand and absorb the information they have been learning. One way to get away from very explicit questioning when dealing with comprehension is to ask the students more open-ended questions in order to allow the students to make text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. 

      Formative assessments are also important in guiding instruction because they are something that needs to be done regularly in order to get a true understanding of the children's knowledge. Formative assessments need to be something that goes along with the daily instruction, because as  Risko and Walker-Dalhouse stated, "Yet Popham (2008), who has conducted research on various forms of assessments, reminded us that most of these interim, benchmark, or periodic tests are not helpful for forming instructional decisions and Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instruction that there is no research to suggest they have direct 

educational benefits for students" (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2010, pg. 421). 

      Times have changed with the introduction of new technology and other educational breakthroughs, and with that needs to come a change in the way we teach our students. Children read and have access to literature such as blogs, social networking sites and other digital articles and stories, so it is important that we begin to bring those types of literature in to the classroom to use as a teaching tool. 

Resources 

Risko, V. J., & Walker-Dalhouse. (2010). Making the most of assessments to inform instruction.

          The Reading Teacher, 63(5), 420-422. DOI:10.1598/RT.63.5.7

EDRD 7717 Module 2: PowerPoints Response

Emergent Literacy

      The way that student's level of reading is categorized is through the use of "stages". The stages also have ages tacted on to them, however, the ages should not be used as a negative or positive when determining where a student is because they are generalizations. Stages should also not be looked at as concrete because students can fluctuate between two of the stages. Therefore, stages should be look at to simply

"give us a sense of what readers have accomplished, what they can do now, what they can potentially do, and what we can do to plan for their needs at any given time" (Emergent Literacy). 

      In order to teach our students in the best way, we need to keep two theorists in mind, as well as assess the student's often. Piaget's theories on Literacy Development were that children create and connect their own knowledge to things they were previously familiar with or "forming and reforming concepts in their minds". Also, student's Literacy Development is something that is shaped and builds off of things they have previously learned, and "not necesarily by imitating adults" (Emergent Literacy, Slide 4). Vygotsky's theories of how children learn best centered on the Zone of Proximal Development and Social Interactions. Children learn language and are able to absorb more when they are pushed to communicate more with others. We learned a lot about these two theoriest in my undergraduate, and we always talked about that the more you allow children to communitcate and the more you make them communicate the more progress they will show.    

      This PowerPoint also dicussed ways of assessing the student's reading which were alphabet-letter sound recognition test and high frequency word recognition test. These tests allow the teacher to take a deeper look in to the student's understanding. After the completion of these tests, the teacher will be able to determine what specific challenges the student may be facing. Then, the teacher will be able to determine which direction the remaining lessons need to focus on.

Assessment of Reading and Writing Process

      When I thought "writing assessment", the only thing that came to mind was using a rubric to check the student's ideas, orgnization, voice, word choice, conventions and handwriting; however, after reading I discovered that there were so many different things that could be done to assess the progress of your students' writing. Assessing a child's vocabulary can be as easy as listening and looking for the types of words that the student uses in writing and on a regular basis. It is also important to assess every stage of a student's writing: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and final draft because then the teacehr can see how the story has evolved. The teacher could also use a Writing Portfolio because it will also show the student's growth and progress. The writing process and portfolio can be assessed using the same rubric that I described earlier, but it is important to look at more than the final draft.  

Module 2: Ch. 5 & 6 Opitz Reading Reaction

      Throughout the reading, I was able to recognize the various types of assessments described, however, there were a few new ways of using the information gathered. While I was in my undergraduate program, our professors stressed the importance of doing some sort of formative assessment at the end of every lesson, even if it was something as simple as answering one question as a ticket out the door.
      I had not heard of the terms "authentic and performance assessments" before the reading. An authentic assessment is something that simulates the way students would use their new information in real-life. A performance assessment is something that is still used for assessment, but it is still in the "instructional environment".
      Out of the assessments described in the chapters, I have experienced or conducted observations, checklists, student interviews, and interest inventories. However, there are so much more to these types of assessments that I was completely unaware of throughout my student teaching. Observations should be used regularly in order to get accurate information about the students and their behaviors. The observations can be turned in to a type of running record if the right information is gathered on the observation form such as date/time, and immediate recording. I was reminded of this not to long ago, but I used to go to the clinic at least every other day in elementary school during math because I did not like math at all. There were times where in my mind I really did feel sick to my stomach, but it was something that if my teacher or parents were not keeping track of such information/behavior they may not be aware that I was having severe problems in math. I also was very unaware of all the details that could be included in a checklist. They could be anything from reading interests to language concepts. The information gathered could improve individual and group teaching strategies because if there is an area that is obviously lagging then that is something that needs to be focused on in the future. I have also completed an informal student interview in order to determine my students learning style and their out-of-school interests for a thematic unit I was planning. The students ended up loving the unit because it was centered around camping which was something that the majority of the class was interested in. With the example in the book, the student interviews were centered on  what types of books that interested the students and that is such a great idea. Knowing how well my students did during the camping unit, it would be great to see how the student's reading progress grows when they are starting to read books that they enjoy reading.

Module 1: Reading & Activity Response

      The thing that sticks out most from the readings this week was the chapter dedicated to educational and noneducational factors that could affect a student's reading performance. A few of the situations that were mentioned are things that I am currently noticing in my new school. I did my student teaching in Jones County, GA where there wasn't much parent envolvement and I had a high population of low socioeconomic level students. While I was doing my student teaching, sometimes the students would not get their homework done or wouldn't get certain assignments signed because their parents weren't around to help them and they simply did not have the needed support. There also did not seem to be much discipline on the parents end after hearing of something that happened while the child was at school. On the complete other side of the spectrum, I am not teaching in a Forsyth County, GA school where I have a volunteer list that seems to be never ending. The parents want to come in all the time to help with small groups, and are even offering to help me do creative things with my lesson plans. The students always have their homework and have their agendas signed nightly. The parents are in constant contact with me about how their child is doing and how they can help them succeed in the classroom (some even asking for extra work for their child to complete at home). If something happens in the classroom, the parents are sure to discuss the consequences when the student gets home after school. With that said, I can tell a significant different in their reading levels. The majority of the students in my classroom are reading above level books, while 80% of the students at my old school were reading on middle of second grade levels- some were even reading on a first grade level.
      However, the book also states that reading level could have to do with environmental factors as well as the teacher's noticible perceptions of specific subjects and their methods of teaching. Of course if the children do not have adequate access to appropriate books as home and do not have the support needed for specific activities then they are not going to do as well as they could with their reading abilities. But if the children also have a teacher who doesn't like to teach reading and does not continue to improve their own reading abilities then the child does not have a good "reading role model". Children can only do as much as they are taught, experience or observe, so if the child is not becoming a part of or seeing reading done on the level we expect of them then they will not reach their full potential.
      I have a student who is new to the school this year, and I had begun to notice that something did not seem to be connecting with her. I was always having to redirect her on specific assignments and ask her to go back and complete specific questions. So, I went back and looked and her pretests for math and reading. She skipped the majority of the word problems for math and did not even complete her reading pretest. So, I then went to look at the rest of her tests that she took recently. She did the same thing on those- skipped the word problems. I began to put the pieces together and realized that I needed to do some further testing. I did a reading test on her to find her reading level, and she tested in the 10% for reading fluency and the 12% for reading comprehension. When she reads, she reads letter by letter so she is unable to absorb the content and therefore comprehend the material. After looking over table 1.1 on page 8 in "Reading Diagnosis and Improvement" I now see that she exhibits the majority of the characteristics for a less proficient reader. From here, I will be implementing new reading techniques for her specifically such as allowing her to experience other ways of reading aside from the typical sound it out routine.

Module 1: "Watch & Learn: Assessing Reading Skills"

      This was a very interesting video to watch because even though there were some tidbits of information that we have previously discussed there was also information that I had never thought of before. Even though some students may have very high IQs, they may not be able to read. It is vital that students practice their reading on a daily basis. It is also important that the students get a good model of what reading should sound like. For example, the students will be able to hear fluent reading as well as hear the questioning process. Students need to understand that they are reading for a purpose and not simply reading to identify words. The students need to spend more time trying to understand the passage instead of decoding the words within the passage. However, the video talked about allowing children to read lists of words, but I do not think that should be done as frequently as simply reading text. The students need to be able to see the words in context in order to truely understand their meaning because some words have various definitions, but the students would only know that if they studied the words in different contexts. Watch & Learn also discussed about assessing students frequently in order to monitor their progress. This is important so the teacher can build the lesson around the students strengths and weaknesses.
      Through my experiences, I have seen teachers complete running records on the students' reading fluency and comprehension in order to determine their leveled reading group for the upcoming week. The students are broken up into groups of similar reading level where they read the same book as a group and complete various assignments on the content. The students are able to work a few days independently and then work with the teacher in order to make sure that comprehension is taking place during their independent time. Last semester we talked about having frequent conferences with students in order to see their standing on specific content and understand where their weaknesses may be stemming from. Even though the students may be on varying reading levels, you may find that they are having the same struggle just in varying degrees. Therefore that topic is something that can be discussed as a class.